I typically lay all clips on the timeline and then go in afterwards and do the audio tweaking

In Vegas - I can right click on the audio track and tell Vegas to send a copy of the audio track to the audio editor of my choice. Once in either Sound Forge 9 or Audition 1.5, I can apply the necessary tweaks as needed (Audition's Noise Reduction tool is the best I have ever used), save the file as a wav, and Vegas immediately replaces the original audio track of the clip with the edited updated wav file - very efficient workflow and non-destructive since I can always go back to the original video clip's audio track if needed simply by doing a ctrl+z.

I've tried this methodology with MC3 and my workflow is slowed down dramatically due to both apps I use not supporting AAF or OMF. That means having to render out a wav file which takes substantially longer compared to using Vegas Pro with either app I use - and this is beginning to become a major contributing factor in my decision.

What little I have worked with in MC3 I like, but with the reading I've done on ProTools - I can't seem to find any accurate info regarding how to perform noise reduction. And it also seems kind of a kludge to bounce back and forth between MC3 and ProTools - When VP8 is working right - it's lightening fast when needing to go out to either audio editing app I use.

Anyways - Just sharing my experiences with regards to this whole ordeal.

Cliff,

Have you tried using Vegas 7? (You can have 8 and 7 installed on the same machine w/o any problems.)

It sounds like your editing needs can be done in just about any good NLE, but Vegas also has the audio capabilities for your workflow.

Hi Cliff - I guess a better question may be what are your primary audio needs

eg - do you need fader control? or is it just noise reduction filtering etc.

A few guys over in the Avid forum are raving about Sonar Cakewalk (I've never used it), but it does support OMF V2 according to the search I did on their website. BTW most professional audio applications support OMF/AAF export/import and broadcast wav files. The fact that Sound Forge and Audition don't should give you a clue. I'd evaluate Avid and see if you can live with it (probably FCP as well) - then you're not "locked" into any format. This is especially important for gettign long form projects mastered externally.

Remember using AudioSuite and the original audioEQ tool you can accomplish a lot within the Avid interface. You may find it does everything you need without going to an external program.

John - my primary audio needs have centered around noise reduction capabilities - Adobe Audition's Noise reduction tool is fast and very good at cleaning up audio as needed. Sound Forge isn't quite as good, but it's very efficient at other options I might need from an audio editing app and it DOES support Broadcast Wave files.

I was able to get past a pressing deadline I had on a project and can now give Avid a more accurate test to see if this is the direction I need to go.

Just wanted to say thanks for this info.
I obtained a hard drive full of clips dig'ed w/ Vegas. Avid would not import them.
After running them through HDVSplit every one of them imported perfectly.

MPEGStreamclip is the easiest I found to fix the problem as I don't have to split or re-compress the footage.

Once loaded after the message about bad data save as Ts file and rename it to m2t and avid loads it fine after that.